photo by Angie Carlson
Last Sunday, I had a minor accident that as I attempted to remedy illustrated some basic failing that many small businesses suffer from. While weed whacking my yard, I shot a handful of small stones towards my house and broke my sliding glass door and another window. The outer pane of the windows shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, but the windows held and remained intact. I knew that since it was Sunday during Memorial Day weekend that there wasn’t really anything that could be done, so I waited until Tuesday morning to call anyone about it.
After a bit of research on the internet, I came up with an amount of what I thought it would probably cost to replace the windows: $1000. As long as it wasn’t too much more, I wouldn’t hesitate to hire the first company that could replace them.
I first called the local glass and window company. I talked to the owner and he said he’d come out later that morning to take measurements and give me an estimate.
Then I called the company that manufactured the windows. They’re in a decent sized city about an hour away, but I figured they’d know someone to recommend. I spoke with a customer service rep and he surprised me when he said that they could replace the windows. Luckily, they had a record of my windows, since they’d only built them about six months ago, so they didn’t need to measure or anything, and after a couple minutes of silence while the rep calculate a quote he announced the total. $403, he said, but that I’d probably be able to find someone cheaper locally. He gave me the model numbers of the windows so that I could get accurate quotes from other window places over the phone and I told him that I’d check around and get back with him later in the day.
I then called the other local glass repair company. They have a fancy website and rank well in Google for all of the appropriate search terms. I spoke with one of the two owners and told him of my predicament. I gave him the model numbers and he said that he’d call me back with a quote.
Finally, I called a regional company that I knew repaired windows throughout Central California. Over the phone, I gave the salesperson the measurements of the windows, because she’d never heard of the manufacturer, and she’d quickly given me a rough quote of $600, but said that a technician would need to come out to take “exact” measurements and would give me a accurate quote once they did. She said that someone could be up the next afternoon. I told her I’d think about it and call her back.
About 11 AM, the owner of the first local glass company I’d called showed up. He was very professional, knowledgeable and took some very careful measurements and really looked like he knew what he was doing. When I questioned him of how long it would take, he said that he’d need to order the windows and that it’d be at least a week and a half. As he was leaving, he said that it would be tomorrow before he could get me a quote.
I’m trying to shop locally as much as possible where practical and reasonably profitable, so I waited until the next morning for someone local to call with a quote. By noon neither of the local companies had called, so I dialed the window manufactured with one further question. When can you fix my windows, I asked. Friday, the rep said, so I hired them to fix my windows.
About 4:45 PM the guy who’d come out to measure my windows called me back with a quote. $688 and two weeks, he said. I said thanks, but no thanks. The second local company never called me back.
It Didn’t Have to Be This Way
I didn’t have to hire a company over and hour away when two local alternatives where available. How long did it really take to calculate a quote for me? Two different companies calculated prices for me over the phone. If the first local contractor would have spent even 20 minutes calculating a quote I probably would have hired him. He’s a nice guy that I’ve seen around town and will definitely run into again, but it seemed like timeliness was of the essence. I have two large broken windows and three kids — that’s not something that I want to hang around and think about all summer.
photo by Angie Carlson